U.S., NATO Look to Use Local Police in Afghanistan

By

Julian E. Barnes And

Adam Entous

Updated Sept. 15, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

KABUL—U.S. and NATO military commanders across Afghanistan are preparing plans for village-based defense forces that will receive arms and funds in a bid to beat back Taliban insurgents in rural towns where President Hamid Karzai's government has scant control.

The Pentagon has requested congressional approval to divert an initial $35 million from the budget for the Afghan security forces to form the new local police groups. Critics say local militias could pose a security threat without careful monitoring.

Although blessed by Mr. Karzai, the local police forces will create a parallel system, likely to be shaped more by local tribal leaders than the Afghan central government because Kabul has so little sway in those areas.

But U.S. military officials—who say the Afghans have shaped the latest iteration of the local police—hope the initiative, modeled on a similar program in Iraq, will force Kabul to pay more attention to the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan's rural areas.

Once the Afghan Ministry of Interior finalizes the regulations, which is expected this month, U.S. military officials will be free to start setting up the units.

In anticipation of the final approvals, the U.S. military has purchased equipment for the first 10 local police units, according to military officials. U.S. officials say the units are meant to be purely defensive. They will be armed only with AK-47 rifles and have limited powers.

The units would be authorized to detain people temporarily but would then turn them over to established security or law-enforcement forces, congressional officials said. "We have identified initial locations and are beginning the detailed planning for those locations," said Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

Commanders hope the initiative will spur local rebellions against the Taliban and increase the security of rural villages that are outside the protection of the Afghan police or army.

In April, in the town of Gizab in Daikundi province, Afghan leaders requested help fighting off the Taliban, and U.S. special operation forces organized villagers into a security group.

Under the new program, called the Afghan Local Police initiative, as many as 10,000 men will be organized into defensive groups. The 1,200 Afghans in Wardak province organized into local security forces as part of one of the earlier pilot programs will also be absorbed into the initiative.

If successful, Afghan and NATO officials could approve a further expansion, military officials said.

Ronald Neumann, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan who is now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, said the U.S. military must be careful not to inadvertently prop up warlords that are hated by the local population.

"It requires constant, careful monitoring by experienced political analysts to know if you're building a force that is politically helpful or if you're doing something that has only short term value and is going to collapse when you leave," Mr. Neumann said.

Although the Ministry of Interior is still finalizing the rules, the local police will receive between five days and three weeks of training provided by special operations or conventional forces. The groups will be paid about 60% of what the official Afghan National Police earn, plus a food stipend.

"The intent is not to make them a military capability force, but just give them enough training to thicken the security," said Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who oversees training of Afghan security forces.

Military officials said the program is meant to last two years. Then members of the local forces deemed to be effective could be given the option to enter the security forces and receive fuller training.

The program is modeled on the Sons of Iraq, the effort to organize former Sunni insurgents into neighborhood defense forces allied with the U.S. in Iraq's Anbar province.But the Iraqi central government was always skeptical of the Sunni-dominated, U.S.-overseen Sons of Iraq.

U.S. commanders are hoping the Afghan program avoids those pitfalls by placing the forces under the control of Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior.

Anthony Cordesman, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in rural areas with few police and little formal justice system, creating local security forces may be the most realistic way to improve security.

In many places, the Afghan National Police have a reputation for corruption and incompetence. U.S. officials say stepped up training is helping turn the force around, though they acknowledge they have a difficult task.

In eastern Paktika province, commanders have identified one and maybe two communities that they think are immediately ready to organize local police forces.

Cpt. Todd Tompkins, a company commander in the 101st Airborne Division, said he believes that the elders in several of the rural villages in his area of eastern Afghanistan would be willing to organize local police forces. But they have requested that the Afghan army or police set up outposts near their villages in order to provide reinforcements if the local forces are attacked.

"There are a lot of villages that are ready for it," Cpt. Tompkins said. "Just like anything else, you don't want to put guys out there without mutual support."

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